Can high nitrates cause bleaching and coral death?

[Magellan]

That's what is absolutely confusing me. I have one little cute damsel fish and some snails. I cant for the life of me figure out where the nitrates would be coming from. I change filter floss once a week, I even took everything out of my sump a few weeks ago and cleaned out the sump from sentiment that was sitting in there and nitrates continued to stay high. I'm going to mix up some salt today and do a large water change tonight.

It seems like it would have to be the sand bed or the rocks. Makes less sense that it would be the rocks after such a long time, but you wouldn’t be the first person on this forum to have serious issues with dry rock. If it were me, I would figure that out ASAP with the process of elimination...the sand would be out of the tank, and you would know pretty quick which one it was.

definitely do the water changes, they will help regardless of what the source of the issue is. But it’s a bandaid..still gotta find the source :/

 

[NHgoalstop]

It seems like it would have to be the sand bed or the rocks. Makes less sense that it would be the rocks after such a long time, but you wouldn’t be the first person on this forum to have serious issues with dry rock. If it were me, I would figure that out ASAP with the process of elimination...the sand would be out of the tank, and you would know pretty quick which one it was.

definitely do the water changes, they will help regardless of what the source of the issue is. But it’s a bandaid..still gotta find the source :/

Now if I take all the sand out should I go bare bottom or just by some new non live sand? And if I go bare bottom, what do people put between the rock and the glass to prevent any scratching or moving?

 

[Jason mack]

Now if I take all the sand out should I go bare bottom or just by some new non live sand? And if I go bare bottom, what do people put between the rock and the glass to prevent any scratching or moving?

I think its personal taste for bare bottom or sand ..I like white sand because it helps bounce light back up ...if you go bare bottom I heard of some people would lay some beads of silicon on the bottom under your rocks too stop scratching

 

[CNDReef]

Most nitrate test kits give a high reading if there’s nitrite present. Check for ditrus accumulation and vacuum your sand bed a little at a time with water changes. Run a magnet over your sand to eliminate the possibility of metals in it

 

[Saltyreef]

Keep the sand if you like it....just rinse it real good.
Step by step,
Remove livestock and place in small heated container with flow.
Then remove rocks and place in another container, doesnt have to be wet if theres no coral growth and have them back in the water within a few hours.
You can then proceed to remove the sand, by whichever method you deem reasonable, into a 5 gal bucket and rinse away until water comes out clear.
On the final rinse you can use RODI to negate any left over solids from the tap water.
While your at it, you can blast off the rock work with a hose too. This should free up a lot of the DOCs contributing to nutrients and whats left will be able to be consumed by skimmer and clean up crew.

 

[NHgoalstop]

Keep the sand if you like it....just rinse it real good.
Step by step,
Remove livestock and place in small heated container with flow.
Then remove rocks and place in another container, doesnt have to be wet if theres no coral growth and have them back in the water within a few hours.
You can then proceed to remove the sand, by whichever method you deem reasonable, into a 5 gal bucket and rinse away until water comes out clear.
On the final rinse you can use RODI to negate any left over solids from the tap water.
While your at it, you can blast off the rock work with a hose too. This should free up a lot of the DOCs contributing to nutrients and whats left will be able to be consumed by skimmer and clean up crew.

So I ended up draining the water and cleaning the sand. I'm only going to use abiutn1/3rd of the old sand. It was a pretty deep bed. Lol I made up about 15 gallons if rodi salt water and will be putting the corals and one fish back in the tank once I'm happy with its temps. Hopefully this takes care of the issues.

 

[Jason mack]

So I ended up draining the water and cleaning the sand. I'm only going to use abiutn1/3rd of the old sand. It was a pretty deep bed. Lol I made up about 15 gallons if rodi salt water and will be putting the corals and one fish back in the tank once I'm happy with its temps. Hopefully this takes care of the issues.

Keep us posted with how it goes ...

 

[NHgoalstop]

Keep us posted with how it goes ...

So after cutting the sand bed down by a bunch and doing a 75% water change, the nitrates are at 25ppm right now. I'm hoping this remedies the situation.

 

[Thaxxx]

Let us know if they go back up. If not, your good. Do probably one more 50% water change to bring it down to about 13ppm. After you give it time to see if it's rising.

 

[NHgoalstop]

Let us know if they go back up. If not, your good. Do probably one more 50% water change to bring it down to about 13ppm. After you give it time to see if it's rising.

Absolutely dumb question, but do nitrates go down on their own?

 

[Thaxxx]

Well, not a dumb question.
If you had a bigger bio load of fish or you were a over feeder. You could always reduce that. There is micro algae to export nitrate, like with a refugium. So they don't exactly just go away.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Absolutely dumb question, but do nitrates go down on their own?

Nitrate can rise or fall as organisms add it and remove it.

 

[NHgoalstop]

Thanks everyone for the helpful ideas in lowering my nitrates. In giing to do one more 25% water change today and then I'll see if my nitrates stay where they are. I really want to get this all ironed out before I put in some clowns and more corals.

 

[Saltyreef]

Give it some time after your large water change and sand bed rinse as your livestock and system will want a week or 2 to acclaimate to the reduced nitrate load.
Great opportunity to start your daily testing regemine and observe how your system and parameters are responding. Keep an eye on macros though and replenish whats needed through water changes. The smaller the better at this point.
I only do 5 gallon water changes on my 50 gallon system once a week to keep everything in check.

 

[NHgoalstop]

So I did two more 25% water changes and nitrates seem to be between 25-50%. Tomorow I'm going to check the overflow box and see if anything in there is causing it. I tested phosphates today and they're sitting at 0.
These nitrates are really driving me crazy.

 

[Cory]

A few things stick out to me. Black sand has caused a few people problems with heavy metals killing their coral. Id get white sand or no sand. Marine pure keaches aluminum. Id remove those. Why have a mystery of maybe? Id remove the variables. That said, nitrate shouldn't be that high with a deep sand bed and marine pure. Id suggest adding a refugium or macroalgae. Red leds work amazing. If you havent got any po4 your no3 wont drop wirh your ats very quickly. I might add some po4.

 

[NHgoalstop]

A few things stick out to me. Black sand has caused a few people problems with heavy metals killing their coral. Id get white sand or no sand. Marine pure keaches aluminum. Id remove those. Why have a mystery of maybe? Id remove the variables. That said, nitrate shouldn't be that high with a deep sand bed and marine pure. Id suggest adding a refugium or macroalgae. Red leds work amazing. If you havent got any po4 your no3 wont drop wirh your ats very quickly. I might add some po4.

Thanks for the response. I have cut the bed down to about 3/4 inch and the phosphates and copper test 0. Even after a 75% water change and multiple 25% water changes I'm still looking around 40ish ppm for nitrates. I'm currently I'm the hunt for some place local that has chaeto to put in a refugium.